THE REBUS

This group and their first album was misconsidered for years as another vintage Italian Prog rarity.The truth is that The Rebus came from Monfalcone and were formed in 2001 as a sextet, led by singer/flutist Luca Sterle.Their first eponymous album came out the following year, self- produced and self-distributed, making it a very hard-to-come-by release.It was propably mistaken with a 73' library album, carrying the same name with this group.

One reason for this total mess up behind two completely unrelated releases was the fact that The Rebus played a strongly 70's-influenced Hard Prog, a bit similar to OSANNA, JUMBO and I CALIFFI.However the clean production does not leave many doubts about the chronological placement of this work, even more strengthened by some very modern sounding synthesizers.Getting deep into the musical point of view, the tracks contain a sharp and often adventurous Hard Rock with definite Italian Prog vibes, based on Sterle's rough vocals, the hard-hitting flute grooves and the angular guitar work.A fair amount of Folk inspiratiions appear here and there, while the keyboard parts are quite interesting with bombastic organ moves and a decent dose of soaring synthesizers.The pieces are not particularly long or even original, but the music is solid with good breaks, tapping rhythmic tunes and rich arrangements.A few of the shorter pieces are quite straightforward flute-based Hard Rock, but the vast majority of the album flows in a cool, progressive enviroment with a dominant guitar-led edge and some trully powerful flute work.

A second and even rarest album, entitled ''Acroterius'' was released in 2005, before the changes in the line-up led to a change of name as well with the group moving on under the name Il Fauno di Marmo.

So, don't ever get fooled around the fame of this album.It is quite rare, yes, but it has nothing to do with the 70's.It is just a passionate, dynamic and angular retro-influenced Hard Italian Prog work with focus on the guitar and flute passages.Recommended.